Magik Markers tour part 2

So we left hanging with Nate in Baltimore and went over to Twig and Carly's Tarantula Hill urban estate. We got lost and went to East Pratt instead of West Pratt "Boy Twig and Carly's neighborhood got fancy!" "I don't remember that Pagoda?" When we finally got there Carly showed us around. We hadn't been since the fire. It was awesome. Hilites include a beautiful sunlit orgone accumulation/meditation/hypnotism zone with an apothocary jar filled with sparkling water from the 1800's still sealed. 4th floor has a rad recording studio with a record cutting lathe. They have a patio on the roof with a "7th level" garden and beekeeper zone that brought us right back to Jafa "Love Here" on the heliport.

Motored down to Durham.. made some lp's and tapes along the way.. stopped at Wawa.. slept.. not a bad drive. Went to the show space, which it turns out was just some dude's house. "This doesn't look like a Punk House." Dude Craig was rad.. his house was filled with all kinds of ephemera. "So you have the SCTV box set huh?" He regailed us with stories of his former job as a music industry professional for yuprock records. Harrowing and dramatic. He sent us off to eat at a good bbq place, which we couldn't find. Instead we were lured by the place pictured above. It was really hard to resist actually. I only made it halfway through my sausage dog before my throat seemed to close up unwilling to accept anymore of the sausage dog topped with bacon cheese and ranch dressing french fries. It's probably for the best as the food had a distinctive gasoline flavor.

Met up with the Sic Alps at Craigs crib. Hung out drinking beers and hearing about their tour adventures to date. "We've been hittin' the boozes."

First band American's in France was cool. The guitarist had one of those black guitars with the speaker built in. I love that guitar. We played second. Didn't monkey with a setlist for this one. Just followed each other's impulses and I think wound up with a pretty good set. It was super fun anyway and rocking.

Sic Alps sounded great and I'm super stoked to be seeing them every night! They played new and old tunes and the audience was stoked. I read some Charlie Brown comics from 1950. I love Snoopy. Went to a good Mexican place after the gig and got a burrito called the Garden which was a good antidote to the gasoline dogs we had for dinner.

Now we're at a place which doesn't have live chickens unfortunately, but does have fresh eggs. Now we will eat them.

MM Tour Report

So I guess day one of the tour was our gig at the Stone on the Lower East Side the other night. We set up in a circle with our amps all facing each other in the center of John Zorn's tiny performance space. We made them help us drag the grand piano out, which almost fell through a hole in the floor. I also had my pick of the cool 60's jazz dude drumsets they have piled up in the basement. Set it all up real quick and sound checked while a crowd gathered in the freezing cold outside.

After the crowd settled in we took down the lights for Aaron Rosenblum's super cool projection show. We started playing some piano based songs.. Bad Dream, Ballad of Harry A. .. and let that stuff get all free and bleed into a mix of wild jams and a few new and old songs. Super fun free wheeling set. Thanks to everyone who traveled to check us out and sorry to those who couldn't get in.. but we're playing another New York gig in like 2 days.

Chilled in the basement for a bit with my main cat Tom Surgal who, along with his partner Lynn, is curating events at the Stone for the next several months. There's about a million good gigs in their series so check out their schedule here. Six Organs of Admittance played the 10 o clock gig, and holy shit, this was some of the best guitar playing I've ever seen in my entire life! This guy has total mastery of his instrument. Truly inspiring to see someone making such complex and beautiful art right before your eyes. Dude has some hits too! He managed to weave tons of awesome acoustic guitar shredding throughout the whole thing and by the end the crowd was screaming for an encore. Awesome show.

The next night we didn't have a gig.. but Elisa and John came over and hung out with my wife and I for a pizza party. I made a kind of Margherita pizza with a bit of Spinach.. It's all I had but the second pie turned out pretty good I think. We all stayed up telling stories and jokes till like 1 in the morning.

Yesterday's gig was in Baltimore. Everyone came by my place in the morning to pack and work on a tour cdr consisting of the gig we had just played at the stone. We had a really good recording and with a few tight edits it was all set! I grabbed a Captain's Daughter sandwich from Saltie for the road. It was a strange sandwich with anchovies, hard boiled eggs, capers, onions, I can't remember what else. It was really good tho. It caused much ire with Elisa however who thought that it was just dumb and not funny at all to name a fish sandwhich after The Captain's Daughter. I thought it was also dumb but funny. I asked Elisa to come up with a better sandwich. Her idea was top bread dark rye walnut bread... bottom loaf light rye with sunflower seeds.. filled with Iberian ham, prosciutto etc. It would be called the Knut Hamsun. I think this is a better name. Not sure about the 2 types of bread.

Our gig in B more was great. Afternoon Penis ruled hard in a dreamy synthy way. Old School Nautical Almanac was confusing and very good. We played a tight but free rock set including such numbers as Taste and You Buy It. Lower Dens was very cool. Their guitarist was temporarily playing drums but their great songs still shone through the less tight sound.

Tonight we're playing with Sic Alps in Durham so come see us! Gotta go cause the battery is dying.

Come See Metal Mountains and Spectre Folk March 3rd

Magik Markers "Mother was Magik" tour

Very, very Excited for this tour... . playing lots of gigs with the always awesome Sic Alps! Here's the scoop:

Sunday, March 6 at 8:00pm - March 7 at The Ottobar 2549 North Howard Street Baltimore, MD With Lower Dens and Nautical Almanac... 04 New York, NY The Stone These with Sic Alps!: 07 Durham, NC The Layabout 08 Philadelphia, PA The Rotunda 09 Brooklyn, NY Monster Island Basement 10 New York, NY Old Firehouse 12 Pittsburgh, PA The Shop These gigs all with the Sic Alps.. 13th... Bethlehem PA.. location TBA check out Sic Alps new vid... it rules

be scared

art by Ben Chasny of Badgerlore

United Waters "Platetectonics", Devin, Gary, and Ross Show

Production is underway for Brian Sullivan's home made masterpiece under the United Waters moniker. Lp's will be out March 1st. For now, here's the first single off the record entitled "Platetectonics".. which premiered earlier this week at Tiny Mix Tapes.

Also..

Arbitrary Signs recording artists Devin, Gary, and Ross will be playing an awesome gig at Issue Project Room in Brooklyn on Thursday February 17th with a professional light show by the world renowned Joshua Light Show.

Their Arbitrary Signs EP is slated for release on April 1st.

here's the word from GaryPanter.com

GARY PANTER BLOG

January 27, 2011

DEVIN GARY & ROSS playin’ out in Feb

Filed under: Blog — Gary Panter @ 1:56 pm

http://www.issueprojectroom.org/film/artist-music-journal-presents-seriously-ecstatic-joshua-white-at-the-fillmore-east-1968–70/

As you can see by way of the link, we are playing to honor our friend Joshua White, genius light show artist, on the occasion of the publication of a limited edition history of the art of Joshua and the Joshua Light Show, house light show for the Filmore East when it mattered most. The really nice survey was written by friendly Dan Nadel of Picturebox books. The calendar info neglects mention of Ross and i hope that they will amend that mistake before our show at ISSUE PROJECT ROOM on the 17th of Feb, 2011. We will appear with a light show conducted by Seth Kirby and crew. When I learn more specifically who is working on the light show, i will endeavor to make myself post that info.

Plus, we have finished our vinyl record EP. More about that soon.

Magik Markers head to J Mascis attic to record

The Markers are planning to lay down a few tracks for an upcoming lp at J's this weekend... keep your ears peeled for more....